A 1,400-acre blaze that chased residents from the Old West Ranch community about 10 miles south of Tehachapi was 25 percent contained.

The firefighting command revised the number of destroyed structures down to 25, and Kern County Fire Department Battalion Chief Dean Boller said most were homes.

Fire officials initially estimated 30 to 40 homes were lost. Another 150 homes in the loosely connected community remained threatened.

The area is usually so gusty that wind farms line ridges, but Wednesday afternoon the weather was cooperating with the 800 firefighters on the lines, producing only light breezes.

Winds were expected to increase to 15 mph later in the day, but Boller said firefighters had yet to see the kind of gusts that drove the fire the previous day.

"It was absolute chaos," he said. "It is very, very overgrown. There's so much dead and downed fuel out there -- we knew we were in trouble."

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Joshua Packer, 20, was taken into custody Sunday and booked for investigation of three counts of murder and two counts of robbery, capping an 11-month investigation of one of the most horrific homicides in years in Ventura County, sheriff's Deputy Chief Gary Pentis said.

Brock and Davina Husted, both 42, were repeatedly stabbed last May by an intruder wearing a motorcycle helmet who slipped into their Faria Beach home through an open sliding-glass door. Police considered it a triple homicide because Davina Husted was about five months pregnant.

The Husteds' 9-year-old son saw a man confront his mother in the kitchen and ran to his 11-year-old sister, who was asleep, authorities said. The children then ran to a neighbor's home and called 911. They were not hurt and now live with relatives.

"It's horrible for the children," sheriff's Capt. Ross Bonfiglio said.

Pentis believes the crime began as a robbery. He said items were taken from the couple's home but didn't provide further details.

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